"A patronus?" Kelly whispered to me under her breath. "Isn't that supposed to be, like, seventh year magic?" Harry continued to pace around the room as he explained everything we needed to known, about thinking happy thoughts and all that jazz.
"Honestly, not all of us are magical protégées" Laura rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "Nor are we all Ravenclaws."
"Hush up" I hissed to my friends, but they continued to blabber on about whatever.
"Well, I've given you enough explanation as it is" Harry cleared his throat and dug his hands into his pockets. "The rest is up to you, I guess." Kelly and Laura sighed but drew out their wands anyways, flicking their wands around in the air without really a clue in what they were doing.
"What's your memory?" someone whispered in my ear, causing me to jump a few inches into the air.
"Hmm?" I turned around, only to be nose to nose with George.
"What's your happy memory?" George repeated, cocking his head to the side as he pulled out his wand. "You know, to produce the patronus?"
"Oh" I blinked for a moment as my brain cleared away the fog that had built up while I was mindlessly listening to Harry. "Oh, I... I don't know."
What was my most treasured memory? I mean, not that I don't have an abundance of them. There were ones with my dad and my grandparents, some with Kelly and Laura, and several with George.... but which one was my most treasured?
I thought hard, sorting through my brain to separate the nice ones from the best ones, but no matter how hard I tried I couldn't remember them in specifics. Thanks to the potion that my brain was currently soaked in, it felt as though I was watching a television show play out in my head. I could infer how the first time I met Kelly and Laura on the train felt, but I couldn't actually feel it.
"I'll tell you what my favourite memory is" George bent down and brought his lips close to my ear. "You."
His response startled me. Not pranks? Not his family? Not the Wheezes?
"Me?" I whispered back.
George laughed and placed his hands on my forearms. "Why do you sound so surprised?" he shook his head and pulled away from me, drawing his wand forward and flourishing it around in the air. "Expecto Patronum" he said lazily, although his eyes remained intense on some figment that was only in his own mind.
A string of silver shot out of the end of his wand, slowly forming into a blob that hovered in midair. The blob shifted for a moment and finally took the shape of what looked to be a bird, a Magpie perhaps? I'm no bird specialist. It zoomed around the room, dipping and diving between the heads of other members before fading away.
"On the first try mate?" Lee commented and George nodded as he focused on the bird. "Must be a pretty great memory."
"That is pretty impressive" I laughed as I placed a hand on his shoulder. "What are you-ˮ I started to say, but everyone in the room had stopped what they were doing to look at the house elf that was pulling on Harry's robes. They whispered hastily to each other as the patronus' in the room succeeded to fade away into mist, and then into nothingness.
The house-elf tripped over himself and fell to the floor, proceeding to sob words that were impossible to comprehend. Harry's eyes grew in terror and he looked up at the rest of the group in panic.
"WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?" Harry yelled. "RUN!" We all knew what it meant. Umbridge had found us. George and I looked at each other for a brief moment before heading towards the door, getting caught in the crowd as everybody tried to make a break for it. We broke through the barrier and ran down the corridor, never looking behind us as we continued slid around another corner.
"We'll never make it to the Common Room in time" I gasped. "Besides, she'll probably have Filch waiting there for us."
"Follow me" George said after a moment of thinking. He turned towards the staircases without another moment to lose and sat on the banister. "Are you coming?" he said before sliding down the thin rail of porcelain.
He had to be absolutely bonkers. There was no way that we could manage to get away from Umbridge by going down the stairs. I could hear the footsteps coming from a few floors down, but George's outline was getting smaller and smaller as he plummeted.
"George bloody Weasley, if I die..." I murmured to myself as I straddled the rail and continued after him. Down and down I slid, still significantly far behind George and cringed at the approaching footsteps that seemed to be racing towards me.
"Got one!" shouted Pansy Parkinson as I came into her view. She raised her wand to my level, but I whipped my wand out on impulse.
"Expelliarmus!" I yelled and sent her wand flying out of her hand and over the opposite railing. I continued to slide down the rail, the floor growing nearer and racing past faster as I picked up speed.
The end of the railing was finally in sight and I pushed my hands against the railing, burning the skin slightly, so I could stop myself before I hit the post. George was standing at the bottom, smirking mischievously as he waited for me.
"Nice shot" he commented and held out a hand to help me off the banister.
"If I do say so myself" I brushed my burnt hands against my pants and shrugged.
"But we're not out of the woods yet" George started again, grabbing my wrist and taking off down the third floor corridor just before a spell hit the spot on the floor where we had just been standing.
"Get back here!" the ever annoying voice of Pansy screeched after us.
We ran as hard as we could, sliding around every corner and refusing to look back at our pursuer. Instead, George kept the same steady pace until he came to the statue of the one-eyed witch.
"Dissendium!" he hissed and the hump on the witch opened up to reveal a passage, small enough for us to squeeze through, and a short slide. He pushed me inside and followed suit before it closed off and separated us from Pansy.
"Oumf!" I grunted as I landed on the ground with a thud. I crawled over to the other side of the narrow passageway, rubbing my arse and waiting for George. He appeared a few moments later, his hands tucked behind his head as he slid down the slide on his back.
"What a fabulous entrance" I said dryly and squinted at him through the dark. "But where are we?"
"In a passageway, of course" I could almost feel him roll his eyes as he strode over to me and held out a hand.
"No really?" I took it and pulled out my wand with my other hand. "Lumos. I would have thought it was a ballroom."
George laughed and plucked the wand from my hands, causing the light to disappear. He flourished his own wand and created a handful of Blue Bell Flames, setting them in an old torch-holder. "It goes straight to Honeydukes, actually." He tossed both of our wands to the ground and leaned against the wall beside me. "This is how I make your extremely frequent chocolate runs."
"Oh really?" I cocked an eyebrow up at him but my eyes shifted to the slide. How many people knew about this passageway? Did Umbridge? Would we get caught?
"And Filch doesn't even know about it" George laughed and ran a hand through his hair. "Only me, Fred, Lee, Harry, and the Marauders."
"The who?" But George didn't answer. Instead, he leaned in and wrapped his arms around my upper thighs, just under my bum. He picked me up, causing me to almost smack my head on the ceiling. "Is there a reason why I'm up here?"
"Do you hear that?" George whispered. I shook my head and he gave me a lopsided grin. "Exactly. We're home free, all thanks to my rather brilliant trouble making skills."
I laughed quietly and rolled my eyes, placing my hands on his shoulders. "That's all fine and great, love, but could you put me down? I'm sort of touching the roof."
"My bad" George loosened his grip on me and I slid down to the ground, his arms now around my torso. He looked down at me, a smile and the reflection of the flames in his eyes, and used one of his hands to tilt my chin upwards. "It's true, you know."
"What's true?"
"That you're my favourite memory." The sincerity in his voice made every single one of my doubts fly through the window as I stretch up onto my toes to meet his lips with mine. As they danced together, passionate and sure, I knew that even though I couldn't remember them as well as he could, he was my favourite memory as well.
_______________________________________________________________________________
"So anyways, Fred and I were sitting in the library" George said as he turned his head to he could get a glimpse of me. Fred, George, and I were walking down the hallway as I took another ride on George's back. It was Easter Break and the initial panic about Umbridge catching us had passed, although we had yet to have another meeting.
"Wait, back up for a second. You two were in the library?" I reached my hands for the boy's foreheads and felt them simultaneously. "Well, you don't seem to be feverish. Are you going insane, then?"
"Ha ha" Fred laughed wryly and pushed my hand away. "Very funny. I'll have you know that we were looking up something extremely top secret for a new line of products. Do you know if you can create miniature Puffskeins?"
"Excuse me?"
"Never mind" George cut in. "As I was saying, we were in the library when-ˮ
"Now what do we have here?" asked Graham Montague as he stepped out of the closest classroom. He clucked his tongue and sauntered around us, his hands folded tightly behind his back as he took us in.
"Will I never get to finish my story?" George sighed but slowly bent down and let me off of his back. "Get out of the way Montague, we have better things to do than stare at your ugly mug."
"Talking back to a member of the Inquisitorial Squad, Weasley?" Montague shook his head but smiled maliciously at us. "I'm afraid that I'm going to have to take house points away from Gryffindor for that one."
"You can't take house points away from us" Fred rolled his eyes.
"Oh, can't I? I'm a part of the Inquisitorial Squad and Professor Umbridge has given that privilege to the whole lot of us." He shrugged and continued on his rant. "Let's see, 10 for talking back. 10 for inappropriate contact with someone of the opposite sex. 30 for being stupid ginger Weasleys...."
Fred and George crossed their arms at the exact same time, throwing their heads back and laughing sarcastically as they narrowed their eyes on the leering Slytherin. They took a step forwards and loomed over the sixth-year.
"We know that you don't mean that" Fred said.
"And by 'you can't take house points away from us'" George jumped in, blocking my view of whatever was going on.
"-We mean that we won't let you." Fred continued.
"Because, you can't take away house points from us-" George grabbed the boy by the forearm.
"-If nobody can find you" Fred shrugged and grabbed his by the other arm. Together, they lifted him up and carried him to the Vanishing Cabinet not a few feet away.
"YOU PUT ME DOWN THIS INSTANT!" Montague screamed and kicked out his feet.
"Ace, do you mind opening the doors for us?" George tilted his head to the side, and I hesitated. I knew I should probably ask them to put him down....
"DON'T YOU DARE YOU STUPID, FILTHY BITCH!" Montague shrieked. But then again, he was abusing his powers.
I marched straight over to the Vanishing Cabinet and opened the doors as wide as they could go.
"One, two, three!" On three, the boys threw Montague into the cabinet head-first, closing the door behind him and silencing his shrieks. The boys exchanged sly smiles and pulled out their wands, pointing them to the handles of the doors.
"No" I said, stepping between them with a stern look on my face. "You've done enough."
"But he called you a-ˮ
"I don't care what he called me. Now let's go" I grabbed on the boys ties and dragged them down the corridor and away from the cabinet.
Fred shrugged and put his wand in his back pocket. "You know, I'm sure glad we're leaving this place."
"Yeah, in about 3 months" I laughed and the boys stopped walking behind me. I turned around, only to be facing the guiltiest looking boys I had ever seen,
"About that..." George walked over to me and slung an arm around my shoulder. "Remember Christmas, when I told you that Fred and I might be leaving school early to start up the business?"
"Uh huh" I cut him off and raised a hand to his face. "But that was 3 months ago. Why in the world would you want to drop out with only three months left of school?" The boys opened their mouths to speak, but I silenced them right away. "It's just three more months! What would be the harm?"
I could feel the bubble of panic well up in my throat as I tried to imagine the boys leaving me alone here. How could I manage without George telling me that he loved me every single day? Or get through a meal without having witnessing someone get food flung into their hair? Or hear their raunchy jokes?
"Ace" George said, tightening his grip on me. "There's no point for us to be here. Umbridge is just looking for an excuse to expel us, we aren't learning anything that we don't already know or will ever need, and we're raking in enough dough as it is."
"Don't think of it as dropping out" Fred leaned against the wall with a dismissive look on his face. "Think of it as getting a head start on our future!"
"I don't think that you'll have a future once you're mum gets through with you" I mumbled, crossing my arms firmly over my chest.
"We'll fly over that bridge when we get to it" George shrugged and pecked me on the top of the head.
"And there's nothing I can say that will make you stay?" I asked quietly. I knew I was being selfish and that the only reason I wanted them here was because it made me feel better. I knew that deep down in my heart, it was the best choice for them to start on the business now. Pushing down all of my feelings, I leaned my head onto his shoulder and bit back the well of tears that threatened to spill from my eyes.
"Not really" they said together. I sniffed loudly and closed my eyes, taking a deep enough breathe to calm myself.
"Fine, but I don't want to wake up one morning, only to find out that you two put an extendable swamp in the corridor and flew out without even saying goodbye." We started walking back down the corridor again as I continued to leaned against George.
"That's actually a good idea" Fred laughed and looked at me seriously. "Not the not saying good-bye part! The part about the extendable swamp..... Mind if we use it?"
"Sure" I laughed, wiping my eyes on the back of my hand. "Just don't tell anyone it was my idea. The last thing I need is for people to think that I'm a trouble maker."
"My dear Ace, we wouldn't ever dream of it."